Sam Moore, Phoenixville football runs over Pottstown in 35-7 win

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POTTSTOWN >> Despite featuring the Pioneer Athletic Conference receptions leader in Ahmid Spivey, Phoenixville’s offense kept things almost entirely on the ground against Pottstown on Friday.

Initially trading blows throughout the first quarter, the Phantoms put up 28 unanswered points behind a sound rushing attack for a 35-7 win over the Trojans at Grigg Memorial Field.

“We started off a little slow like we usually do. But I feel like once the line started feeling what they were doing, we just adapted to it,” Phoenixville running back Sam Moore said. “They opened up the lanes and I could just run free. It was super easy to run through them there.”

Moore pounded the drum all night with 146 yards on 14 carries with a 21-yard reception for good measure. His biggest run of the game came on a 37-yard run to extend the Phantoms’ lead, 28-7 heading into the break.

Neither team got on the board until three and a half minutes remained in the first quarter. A muffed punt was recovered by the Phantoms (4-2, 2-0 PAC Frontier) in the red zone. Darius Watson (six carries, 62 yards) then emerged from a pileup and scampered in for a 15-yard score.

It took just one minute, 17 seconds for the Trojans (1-5, 0-2 PAC Frontier) to respond. Following a few big plays on the ground, junior quarterback Dillon Mayes skirted in on a 1-yard outside rushing touchdown to tie the game.

“The team was staying together, competing. You come out and compete, you give yourself the best chance,” Trojans assistant coach Terrance Shawell said. “I thought we gave ourselves the best chance the first couple drives but after that, we started slowly losing our steam, slowly losing our momentum.”

Watson bookended the scoring by taking a handoff five yards into the end zone with 5:34 left to play.

Phoenixville had an even quicker response. A 57-yard run to the house from Spivey on the first snap of the Phantoms’ ensuing drive gave Phoenixville what became a permanent lead.

Spivey entered Week 6 with a conference-high 355 yards on 11 catches and five touchdowns. He hauled in one reception for eight yards as the vast bulk of the game was determined by not only the front seven, but the backfield rotation as well.

“For the past few weeks, we’ve really been trying to establish a run game first because we know that that obviously opens up the pass game,” Moore said. “Giving (Spivey) carries to the outside, you can’t really tell what we’re gonna do. We come back with counters, we give it to him, he goes for 70, everybody gets the ball and we just establish the run game and dominate.”

Phoenixville running back Darius Watson (5) celebrates a touchdown against Pottstown at Grigg Memorial Field on Friday. (Evan Wheaton – MediaNews Group)

Pottstown completed just one pass, a 23-yard connection from Mayes to Aaron Winfield early in the third quarter. Junior running back Nazhier Booker led the Trojans with 91 yards across 10 touches. Mayes added 56 yards on 11 keepers to go with his score.

“Coming into this game, we knew they were gonna be a run-heavy team,” Phoenixville defensive back Kolton Finger said. “Really just gotta watch, we had to key in on that tight end drag that would come out a lot. Just never keep your eyes in the backfield, always watch your receivers first and we were able to sniff out a lot of play action and held them to the one (catch).”

Finger came up with an interception in the waning minutes of the first quarter to set up the Phantoms’ offense in Pottstown’s territory.

Eight seconds into the second quarter, Phoenixville cashed in when Talon Romance found Hayden Tenbroeck in the corner of the end zone on a 10-yard floater.

“I definitely thought that was a turning point. That was great,” Finger said. “Right after that they started hanging their heads and weren’t coming with as much intensity as they started the game with and I knew we were gonna lock down the rest of the game.”

The lockdown was fueled by two turnover on downs, another interception from Tenbroeck and a late sack for Chris Mull.

“Any game you play is won in the trenches. If you don’t have the line to support anything behind you, that’s gonna be key,” Shawell said. “We felt we had a fighting chance coming in, especially with some of our seniors coming back, some of our offensive linemen, but they played a great ball game so we gotta take our hats off to them.”

Phoenixville 35, Pottstown 7
Phoenixville 14 14 0 7 — 35
Pottstown 7 0 0 0 — 7
SCORING
First quarter
PH — Watson 15 run (Sposato kick), 3:25
PO — Mayes 1 run (Green kick), 2:08
PH — Spivey 57 run (Sposato kick), 1:54
Second quarter
PH — Tenbroeck 10 pass from Romance (Sposato kick), 11:52
PH — Moore 37 run (Sposato kick), 7:21
Fourth quarter
PH — Watson 5 run (Sposato kick), 5:34
TEAM STATISTICS
PH PO
First downs 12 7
Rushes-Yards 29-290 28-161
Passing yards 63 23
Total yards 353 184
Passes C-A-I 5-9-0 1-9-2
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 1-0
Penalties-Yards 6-38 10-67
Punts 2 3
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Phoenixville — Moore 14-146, TD; Spivey 2-62, TD; Watson 6-62, 2 TD; Williams 6-21; Venezia 1-(minus-1).
Pottstown — Booker 10-91; Mayes 11-56, TD; Bostic 4-8; Thomas 2-5; Oister 1-1.
Passing
Phoenixville — Romance 5-9, 63 yards, TD.
Pottstown — Mayes 1-9, 23 yards, 2 INT.
Receiving
Phoenixville — Tenbroeck 2-10, TD; Spivey 1-8; Mull 1-24; Moore 1-21.
Pottstown — Winfield 1-23.
Interceptions: Phoenixville 2 (Finger, Tenbroeck).
Sacks: Phoenixville 1 (Mull).

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Evan Wheaton

ewheaton

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